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Kresa's athletic background is in ice hockey, which her father encouraged her to pursue.[1] She was the captain of the first girls' team at her high school and played at St. Cloud State University for two years.[1]

She began watching professional wrestling as a child.[2] She enjoyed watching wrestlers such as The Killer Bees.[2] She originally desired to be on the show American Gladiators.[2] She hired a personal trainer in anticipation of her wrestling training.[2]

Kresa got her start in professional wrestling when she tried out for the first season of WWE's reality show, WWE Tough Enough.[2] She made the top 25, but missed the final cut for the show.[2] Back home in Minnesota, she began training and was soon wrestling in independent wrestling promotions all over the Midwest, facing men such as Ken Anderson and Shawn Daivari.[2]

Kresa received her first national exposure in early 2003 as O.D.B., wrestling Trinity in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. She returned to TNA in early 2004 as Poison and was placed in a brief feud with Trinity. She appeared again in TNA during October 2004 and defeated Traci Brooks.[3]

In June 2006, Kresa started working in Ohio Valley Wrestling as a heel. Using the ring name ODB, Kresa created the OVW Women's Championship, even though OVW did not recognize a women's champion at the time.[3] She repeatedly cut promos saying that she was the new OVW Women's Champion, and OVW owner Danny Davis conceded and recognized the OVW Women's Championship.[3][4] ODB lost her title to Serena in a fatal four-way on September 13, 2006.[4][5] In the spring of 2007, ODB won the first ever "Miss OVW" crown with help from Victoria Crawford.[6] After Deeb dropped the title to Katie Lea, ODB engaged in an ongoing feud with her which a led to a match between the two on June 1, 2007 where ODB was booked to win to regain her title and ended Lea's record 212 day reign.[4][7] ODB lost her title for the second time when she dropped it to Milena Roucka in a Six-Way Match on September 19, 2007.[4][8]

O.D.B. was contacted by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling to appear at their annual pay-per-view Bound For Glory. This was confirmed on the October 10, 2007 edition of TNA Today where she was interviewed by Jeremy Borash. She was the first former OVW female star to go straight to TNA instead of WWE. She made her in-ring debut at Bound for Glory participating in a 10 Knockout Gauntlet to crown the first-ever TNA Knockout Champion.[9] She was eliminated by Roxxi Laveaux, and the match was eventually won by Gail Kim.[9] Since then, she has been a regular in the TNA Knockouts Division. She was originally booked as a heel, but her abilities and comical "drunken" antics created positive crowd reactions, resulting in a naturally gradual face push.

On the January 3, 2008 episode of iMPACT! she won a Eight Knockout Gauntlet to determine the rankings of the knockout's division in TNA.[10] On the January 17, 2008 episode of iMPACT!, she defeated Angelina Love and then challenged Awesome Kong to a title match at the pay-per-view Against All Odds.[11][12] It was during this time, that she officially turned face, and became one of the most popular TNA Knockouts. On the January 24 edition of iMPACT! Kong attacked Gail Kim after Kim was named 2007 TNA Knockout of the Year and just as Kong was about to drop her with the Awesome Bomb, O.D.B. hit the ring to make the save.[13] At Against All Odds, O.D.B. was defeated by Kong.[12] At Destination X she lost a Three-way match, which included Gail Kim, to Awesome Kong.[14] At Lockdown, O.D.B. and Gail Kim defeated Awesome Kong and Raisha Saeed.[15] At Sacrifice, O.D.B. participated in the first ever Knockouts "Make Over Battle Royal" which was won by Gail Kim.[16]

On the October 30 edition of iMPACT!', O.D.B. along with A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe, Jay Lethal, Consequences Creed, Petey Williams, Eric Young and The Motor City Machineguns formed a faction of younger wrestlers to oppose the Main Event Mafia as the TNA Frontline.[19] At Genesis, after scoring the pinfall in a 6-way match , it was announced that ODB would get a shot at the TNA Women's Knockout Championship. In this time ODB feuded with The Kongtourage with most results as wins. At Against All Odds she unsuccessfully challenged Awesome Kong for the TNA knockout title. The next week on iMPACT! she cut a promo about letting "one lucky guy spend the night" with her. At Destination X she chose Cody Deaner as her date. At Lockdown ODB won the Queen of the Cage match.